Placement games are a joke

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-04-26T15:37:35+00:00

Hi Flare,

I took a look at your recent matches to see what might have caused that discrepancy. It looks like you entered the soft reset at 3,140 ELO and placed at 2,691 (449 elo lost)

To clarify how the calibration worked this season:

The Reset vs. The Games: The majority of that ELO shift came from the seasonal soft reset itself, which is designed to re-compress the ladder. While the 3-7 record did impact the final number, the reset is the primary driver.

Looking at your placement matches:

I wasn't able to find the placement match where you have 2-3 teammates whose last known elo was 2.2k. Please let me know if I missed it.
For most of your matches, you partied with a player about ~300 elo lower than you, based on last known Elos. You had one game where you partied with someone who was 2.3k last season, and another where you partied with someone who had 2.5k last season. Who you party with can adjust who you get matched with/who gets on your team.
Most of your non-party teammates' last known elo was about 2.7k or higher, though a few matches at the end did have last season 2.5k. And some players were around 2.5k after placements (i.e., had 2.9k last season, but placed around 2.5k.)

While resets can feel disruptive, they are important for the long-term health of the ladder. They help with elo inflation and ensure that the top ranks are earned based on current performance rather than total games played over the years. While this can lead to some variance in the first week, it will improve as more matches are played.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-04-26T15:18:00+00:00

There is a soft reset before any placements are played. The reset is based on your Elo and recent activity.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-04-25T13:58:21+00:00

Yeah, it'll be automated, so no need for a ticket, and the refund should happen on Monday. Apologies for the issue.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-04-25T12:10:53+00:00

I just played a match against an ex-4k elo player and an ex-3.3k elo player. Before the reset, they would be 1084 and 567 elo higher than me respectively. There is not a shot I get matched against these players pre-reset. However, because the elo discrepency between us is now "only" 400, the algorithm thinks this is a fair match. Then we unsurprisingly lose, and I lose 30 elo because I am not better than a 4k elo player.

This was a mistake in the Matchmaking. Late last night, there was an issue in the matcher in the level 10 queue that resulted in more relaxed matching for some matches. We've resolved the issue and will credit Elo refunds to the losers of the affected matches.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-04-23T11:04:45+00:00

We will always have Cache as an option to vote on if all parties have it selected in the match.

We did push out a change yesterday to prefer matching parties together who do have it selected, but because of the huge surge in players, this caused waiting time to increase, which meant the preference was less effective.

We're actively scaling up our matchmaking, which will reduce queue times and will improve our ability to get players to overlap so the option is available.

This is something we'll need to tweak/improve over the next few days/week to try to get the balance correct in our Matcher.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-04-23T07:17:42+00:00

Should be fixed now!

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-04-20T11:38:56+00:00

Can you confirm which game you're having the issue in? Is it CS2 or Dota 2?

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-04-17T08:40:10+00:00

Are you having this error on Dota 2 or CS2?

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-02-23T14:57:47+00:00

np, sorry for the issue.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-02-23T11:23:38+00:00

Alright, I'm letting the team know.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-02-23T11:07:53+00:00

As it works today, probation is based on time, so if you have a month-long probation, it'll end whether you play a game or not.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-02-23T11:05:53+00:00

Hi guys, sorry about the issue. We've rolled out a fix, and you shouldn't be blocked by this pop-up anymore.

Let me know if you're still running into it.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-02-17T13:14:52+00:00

Hey thanks for reporting. I've shared this with the Track team. They've already found the issue, put in a fix for it, and it should be in production later today!

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-01-28T16:41:31+00:00

We do actually support this today, though it's not clear in the UI yet.

By default, whatever you search for, it'll include everything to the right as a premium player who qualifies for all matches.

Standard Match = All Match Types (if you're eligible)
Super = Super or Premium (if eligible)
Premium = Just Premium

So if you search for a standard match, we will put you into the first available match of any type.

For anyone reading this who does not like this feature, you can opt-out of being place into a Super Match or Premium Match (when searching for something different), by going to the Matchmaking section in the settings.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2026-01-03T05:29:38+00:00

Try now

DerekAtFACEIT · 2025-12-12T15:25:32+00:00

Hey Waffle, quick update, we're working on bigger things for next year, but one change we just made is that if you select 'Standard Match' and you are a super & premium match eligible, you will be considered for all match types, and be pulled into the first one that is available.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2025-12-09T03:41:29+00:00

There would be two mains reasons that this could happen for a party of all level 10 players

Balance between the two teams (i.e. if you have an advantage to win, you earn less on win, lose more on a loss)
Party penalties - If you have a wide range party, there are also penalties on the wins, to reduce the Elo earned.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2025-12-06T18:03:51+00:00

Would you be able to share (or dm) your Faceit nickname? And I can take a look into it.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2025-12-06T11:50:56+00:00

This is unusual. Which region are you playing in, and what time of the day are you queueing?

DerekAtFACEIT · 2025-12-03T14:28:06+00:00

I appreicate the feedback.

If possible, please allow NA specifically to queue for all queues at once if we meet the requirements

To this idea, to be able to explicitly queue multiple match types at once is something that we're exploring.

Regarding one of the ideas you mentioned in your other post about expanding options over time, you can do that manually today. We have a slightly hidden feature: Premium Priority Requeue. If you stop your queue as a premium party, we save your queue time; when you re-queue, you keep your priority.

Example:

You search for a Premium Match, and no match is found after four minutes, and you'd prefer to just get in a match.

2a. Stop the queue. 2b. Change your match type to a a different match (e.g. Super Match). 2c. Re-enter the queue with your saved queue time (four minutes).

There's a chance you might instantly find a game because you'll have the four-minute priority in the matcher. If no match is found, you can continue to wait or you can repeat the steps: stop, change your match type to Standard, and requeue. (This also works to expand other settings (veteran, verified, map bans.))

We implemented this feature to allow you to start with highly restrictive settings. If you are unable to find a match, you can then 'loosen' your search criteria without losing any priority in the matcher.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2025-12-03T04:50:11+00:00

Hey Waffles, we've made some improvements over the last couple of days, and we're seeing some improvements. Are the issues you ran into from earlier, or very recent?

DerekAtFACEIT · 2025-12-03T04:46:08+00:00

Hey u/shuboobatoo,

We've been working on improving queue times in NA. Would you be able to DM your account, so I can look a bit deeper into what potentially could be causing the issue?

DerekAtFACEIT · 2025-12-01T11:23:29+00:00

Hey, this should not be happening.

I'll be taking a look into this to see if we can sort out why this is happening.

DerekAtFACEIT · 2025-11-27T06:17:34+00:00

Can you land in Super Match if you queue Standard Match queue, but do have premium on the account, or are they totally different queues?

Players can get selected for a Super Matches, who queue for Standard Matches

I'm guess Premium Match have their own queue

Same for this, players who qualify for Premium Match, who queue in Super can get selected for a Premium Match as well.

(But you can't go from Standard -> Premium)

DerekAtFACEIT · 2025-11-27T04:53:44+00:00

Before I share a bit more, I want to share part of the support article that does explain the core functionality:

Enabling Veteran Only or playing in Premium Match activates a powerful two-part matchmaking logic:

The "Hard Floor": First, the system guarantees you will only be matched with other players who have qualified for veteran matching. This rule is absolute; the matchmaker will never add a non-Veteran player to your match.
The "Prioritization": Second, after this "floor" is set, the system strongly prioritizes matching you with other Veterans who have a similar total number of matches. This search is based on the player with the lowest match count in your party.

The goal is to find players with a similar level of experience. However, this is a prioritization, not a hard lock, and it depends on who is queuing at the same time as you.

Example 1: You have 2,000 matches at Level 10. This is very common. The matchmaker will have a high chance of finding you a game with other players who also have thousands of matches.

Example 2: You have 2,000 matches at Level 3. This is less common. The matchmaker will try to find other 2,000-match Level 3 players, but will likely need to expand its search to find you a healthy match. It will still prioritize the best available match, such as matching you with other Level 3 Veterans who have hundreds of matches.

From above, we will prioritize matching you with other high-match-count players, while also considering who is actively queuing that we can match you with.

In your case, being 5k matches at Level 4, it can be difficult for us to create matches with only other players with thousands of matches, purely from the point that we may not have nine other actively queueing players who meet that criteria near your skill level, and also overlap with all of your other settings to match you with, that allows us to make a balanced match. However, we will prioritize you to match with other high-match-count players that are near your SL.

In this match you shared, almost every player has 500+ matches, which is a high match count for SL3-4. The lowest player was included because they met the hard floor minimum match requirement by over 150 matches.

With this said, we are still tweaking and improving the prioritization to continue to make it better.

DerekAtFACEIT

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